Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) Shares Gap Down – Here’s What Happened

Shares of Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) gapped down before the market opened on Monday . The stock had previously closed at $96.62, but opened at $84.60. Ciena shares last traded at $81.71, with a volume of 2,113,193 shares.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

CIEN has been the subject of several analyst reports. Barclays upped their target price on Ciena from $67.00 to $97.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, December 13th. Bank of America upgraded shares of Ciena from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their price objective for the stock from $70.00 to $95.00 in a report on Friday, December 13th. Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $95.00 price target on shares of Ciena in a research report on Friday, January 10th. Rosenblatt Securities lifted their price target on shares of Ciena from $75.00 to $94.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, December 13th. Finally, Evercore ISI downgraded Ciena from an “outperform” rating to an “in-line” rating and set a $65.00 price objective for the company. in a report on Tuesday, October 15th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $78.77.

Ciena Stock Performance

The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $81.10 and a 200 day simple moving average of $66.60. The company has a quick ratio of 2.72, a current ratio of 3.55 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.54. The company has a market cap of $11.37 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 140.36, a PEG ratio of 1.70 and a beta of 0.89.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, December 12th. The communications equipment provider reported $0.54 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.66 by ($0.12). Ciena had a return on equity of 4.72% and a net margin of 2.09%. The company had revenue of $1.12 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.10 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.56 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was down .5% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts predict that Ciena Co. will post 1.59 EPS for the current year.

Ciena announced that its board has authorized a share buyback plan on Wednesday, October 2nd that permits the company to buyback $1.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization permits the communications equipment provider to repurchase up to 10.5% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are generally an indication that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Ciena news, SVP David M. Rothenstein sold 3,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $89.09, for a total transaction of $311,815.00. Following the sale, the senior vice president now owns 192,997 shares in the company, valued at $17,194,102.73. This represents a 1.78 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, CEO Gary B. Smith sold 13,600 shares of Ciena stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, January 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $83.66, for a total value of $1,137,776.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 425,749 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $35,618,161.34. The trade was a 3.10 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 50,781 shares of company stock worth $4,298,500 in the last quarter. 0.83% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Ciena

Several large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Versant Capital Management Inc boosted its stake in Ciena by 925.0% in the fourth quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 328 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $28,000 after acquiring an additional 296 shares during the period. Hoese & Co LLP acquired a new position in Ciena during the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $25,000. UMB Bank n.a. grew its stake in Ciena by 424.4% during the 3rd quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 451 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $28,000 after buying an additional 365 shares during the last quarter. Kieckhefer Group LLC bought a new position in Ciena during the 4th quarter worth $59,000. Finally, First Horizon Advisors Inc. increased its position in Ciena by 152.8% in the third quarter. First Horizon Advisors Inc. now owns 847 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $52,000 after buying an additional 512 shares during the period. 91.99% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

About Ciena

Ciena Corporation provides hardware and software services for delivery of video, data, and voice traffic metro, aggregation, and access communications network worldwide. The company’s Networking Platforms segment offers convergence of coherent optical transport, open optical networking, optical transport network switching, IP routing, and switching services.